Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for outputting a layout image.
Description of the Related Art
Methods for generating various products such as a collage and an album by using pictures captured by a digital camera have been known. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-287917 discusses an image output method that includes identifying orientations of objects included in images, laying out the images based on the identified orientations of the objects, and outputting the laid-out images.
According to the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-287917, the generated layout exactly follows instructions of a template. Such a method for extracting an image group matching a template has had the problem that a favorable layout reflecting features of the image group is not able to be generated.